1. In 1801, Lancaster, Pennsylvania became the capital of the United States for one day when President Thomas Jefferson and his cabinet moved there after a smallpox outbreak in Washington D.C.

2. On February 17, 1922, the iconic Liberty Bell was damaged during a test ringing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The crack that is visible today was reportedly caused by the clapper striking the bell.

3. In 1864, the first medical school for women in the world, the Woman’s Medical College of Penn, was founded in Philadelphia.

4. On February 17, 1816, the Erie Canal was authorized by the state of New York, which greatly increased transportation of goods and people from the Great Lakes region to the East Coast.

5. Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a grand boulevard modeled after the Champs-Élysées in Paris, was dedicated on February 17, 1917. The Parkway is now home to some of the city's most important cultural institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Franklin Institute.